Syrian bishops kidnapped in Aleppo still missing one month on

Bishop Boulos Yazigi,
left, and archbishop Yohanna Ibrahim were abducted by gunmen on 22 April
in Aleppo, Syria. Photograph: HOPD/AP

One month after two Orthodox Christian bishops were kidnapped by gunmen in Syria, officials say they still have no idea what has happened to the missing prelates.
The
clerics, the most senior church officials to be targeted since civil
war engulfed the country, have not been heard of since their abduction at gunpoint in the northern city of Aleppo on 22 April.
"We
are deeply worried for the lives of archbishop Mor Gregorius Yohanna
Ibrahim of the Syriac Orthodox Church and bishop Boulos Yazigi of the
Greek Orthodox Church," said Katrina Lantos Swett, who chairs the US
Commission on International Religious Freedom (Uscirf).
"These two
religious leaders put aside their own safety by travelling to one of
the worst areas of fighting to help those Syrians left with few basic
necessities after more than two years of war," she said in a statement
released on Tuesday.
"The United States and the international
community must leave no stone unturned to free the archbishops and halt
sectarian violence."
The two men, who are based in Aleppo, were
seized as they returned from a humanitarian mission in neighbouring
Turkey. Their driver, a cleric with the rank of deacon, was shot and
killed in the attack.
Although there have been an array of
rumoured sightings since, authorities admit they have made little
progress locating the bishops or establishing which group is holding
them.
"We are in daily contact with officials across the region,"
said A Greek foreign ministry spokesman, Gregory Delavekouras.
"Information is coming through all the time but absolutely nothing has
been confirmed so far," he told the Guardian. "We remain completely in
the dark."
Athens has set up a crisis management team, sent an
emissary to the Middle East, contacted governments across the region and
used its considerable contacts with the Syrian opposition in a bid to
shed light on the clerics' whereabouts.
The Greek Orthodox Church, which has representatives across the Middle East, has also weighed in, and the Greece's
prime minister, Antonis Samaras, has appealed for help to
Istanbul-based ecumenical patriarch, Bartholomew, spiritual leader of
the world's Orthodox faithful.
"All the stops have been pulled
out," said one insider, saying that because of its geopolitical position
at the east-west crossroads, Greece had "better contacts and better
chances" of finding the bishops than other western allies.http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/21/syrian-bishops-kidnapped-yazigi-ibrahim